Old Adobe School District’s dual-immersion Spanish program is moving to its own campus next fall.

The program, which currently has 150 students housed on the Miwok Valley Language Academy on St. Francis Drive in Petaluma, will move to the Bernard Eldredge campus on Maria Drive that the district closed in 2010 under financial pressure.

The immersion program was launched in 2009-10 at Bernard Eldredge but district officials said later that school year that the declining enrollment and continued cuts in funding from the state necessitated the closure. The district aimed to save $390,000 annually with the closure, but Superintendent Cindy Pilar said earlier this month that the program could grow from its current 150 students to more than twice that.

“We could have 300 to 400 students on that campus in the next couple of years,” she said.

The district is now looking for a principal for the new dual immersion campus. The campus will be re-opened for the 2013-14 school year, according to district officials.

In the meantime, Santa Rosa City Schools is pursuing their own Spanish dual language immersion program. A series of community meetings have already been held and two more are scheduled. District officials say they need parents to sign an intent to enroll form by next month in order to pursue a charter application with the state.

No campus has been identified for the new school in Santa Rosa but officials there hope to have a program up and running for kindergartners and possibly first graders by next fall.

About This Blog

Extra Credit by Press Democrat education reporter Jamie Hansen is your place for daily school news and conversation. Send items to jamie.hansen@pressdemocrat.com and check in daily to read, debate and discuss the latest happenings in schools and classrooms around the North Bay.

Emailing photos to ExtraCredit? Please send them as .jpg attachments, no larger than 1MB per shot.